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Our 4m bell tent from Karma Canvas has served us well. Ours is the one before the mesh doors. Never let in a drop of water, easy to pitch even by one person. Not had a problem with it at all but always make sure our canvas tents are bone dry before we pack them away.

We also had great service from the company. Having previously had a bell tent from an unscrupulous company, which leaked like a sieve (we did eventually get our money back), Karma were happy for us to view the tent before we bought. We picked Karma Canvas because they were cheaper than competitors and local to us. We would recommend.

I am saddened to write this review but I must because my experience with the Karma Kanvas Bell Tent has not been a good one.

When I decided to buy a tent I came here for reviews and recommendations. I spent an enormous amount of time researching for the right tent. It was a very expensive purchase for me. After a recent family breakdown I decided to sell the family caravan to buy an amazing camping experience for me and my little girl.

I decided on the Bell Tent because of ease of erection and this was the only tent my little girl liked, she wanted me to keep the caravan. We are not glampers!

Our first camping trip was to Henry’s Campsite in Cornwall, a very loved and well respected campsite ( highly recommend it). The Bell tent went up in about 15mins and we were settled in a very short space of time. Sadly during the trip we came home one evening to find the door frame had collapsed. On entering the tent we found that the A frame had bent slightly. The winds in the Lizard can be pretty wild but they weren’t this day and we were in a sheltered pitch.

Karma Kanvas couldn’t have been more helpful and they replaced the A frame straight away.

At the beginning of this summer I erected the bell tent in our garden, it was perfect for summer nights, it acted as a spare room, living in Cornwall always attracts guests! The tent is much loved and the care and attention we gave it was second to none! The summer was a good one this year and it had a lot of use. Towards the end of the summer I noticed quite a few mould spots appearing on the tent, inside and out! Within a week almost the whole tent was covered. It was shocking. I couldn’t believe it. I contacted the company to tell them that I didn’t believe it could have been treated properly, or there was a manufacturing fault somewhere. Their response was that they were very sorry to hear about the mould spots on the canvas, and that it wasn’t a common problem but it is more likely to happen when the tent is not taken down regularly to properly dry out. The canvas will develop mildew/mould spots if it is damp and warm at the same time for long periods, and keeping it up for weeks and weeks will give chance for this to happen.

I was upset because there isn’t any of this information offered on their website. Had I know that I should have taken the tent down on a regular basis, I would have. Although given that it isn’t a common problem I’m still convinced it was a manufacturing fault. These Bell Tents are used for long periods of time.

So when I go back to question the treatment it so obviously hadn’t had, I got this response: All our bell tents are treated to be mould, water and UV resistant from new, but unfortunately we cannot guarantee the lifespan of this treatment as this entirely depends upon the myriad of environmental factors that the bell tent is exposed to. If a brand new, fully treated, bell tent was packed away damp on the first outing you would expect to find mould had set in when next opened. The agent used is a combination of the water proofing/UV & Mould resistor and is applied at the time of manufacture, however, due to all canvas tents being notoriously sensitive for 'fungus', the mould treatment is literally a 'resistor' and not a 'complete proof' - this would unfortunately be impossible with canvas, hence the need to reproof your tent from time to time.

Mildew is very destructive to cotton fabrics as well as other materials. Depending on environmental conditions, mildew can start while the tent is set up, especially when pitched for long periods of time, under trees and in undesirable weather. Under certain conditions of humidity and temperature the on-set of mould can be very fast indeed.

The reason mould spots appear on the inside canvas is that this area can be subject to lots condensation from temperature differences and occupants perspiring after spending the night and, unfortunately, this coupled with inadequate ventilation from the tent being erected for long periods of time is a perfect recipe for mould to take hold. It can be very difficult to fully dry the inside of the canvas when the tent is erect especially in damp weather. It only takes 48 hours for mould to start!

We recommend to many of our customers that do use our tents in a 'boutique camping business environment', pitched for long periods of time, to take the tents down as regularly as possible to greatly prolong the lifespan of the canvas treatments and also to ensure the canvas has time to fully dry out on both sides.

They recommend to their ‘boutique camping business customers’ to take it down but they never recommended I do that. I could go on and on, they will not take responsibility for this and I am saddened that I’ve only got to use the tent twice.

Please, if you are thinking of buying a Bell Tent and leaving it up for anything longer than a couple of weeks, ask the company that you are buying it from for more information on care. Karma failed to do this and only offered the info after purchase and they will not replace or refund the canvas.

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Manufacturer's Description

http://www.karmacanvas.co.uk/

4 Metre ZIG Mesh BELL TENT:This is the Karma Canvas 'ZIG Mesh' bell tent. It combines the best features of a 'detached ground sheet' bell tent and a 'sewn in groundsheet' bell tent giving you the benefit of both designs rolled into one. The ZIG Mesh bell tent incorporates modern design and durable components such as lightweight poles, pegs and guy's keeping the weight and size to a minimum and are simple to erect and tension.

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